Chapter 185: Your First Love Isn't Beautiful (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 185: Your First Love Isn't Beautiful (2)
Those who have much and have grown up endlessly loved share a certain characteristic.
They still hold on to an ideal or a dream that would have long since been shattered within anyone else.
Of course, not everyone is like that… but a woman like Kim Eun-bi definitely is.
When a girl who has everything and is loved rather than envied has a dream or an ideal, it’s not she but the people around her who strive to protect it for as long as possible.
I don’t really know what they’re thinking when they do that.
Well… maybe it’s the same sentiment parents have when they dress up as Santa Claus, hoping their children will believe in him for just a little longer.
That’s not to say women like Kim Eun-bi lack a sense of reality.
On the contrary, they know what’s what.
After all, she’s well over twenty, and in this day and age, you can find any information you want just by searching the internet. It wouldn’t make sense for her not to know.
And yet, the ideal she still cherishes is, strictly speaking… closer to stubbornness.
A feeling of, I can hold on to this one thing, even if nothing else.
…Come to think of it, don’t most people have something like that?
Anyway.
What Kim Eun-bi desires is a fateful encounter.
She wants a miraculous meeting that can only be described by the word ‘destiny.’
I have no idea how she figured that out, but Jo Yun-kyung said she had even come up with a way to ‘stage’ that fateful encounter.
Apparently, she’d finished gathering information long ago, and her search was delayed because she was busy thinking up the plan.
“…Hmph.”
The method she’d racked her brain to come up with was none other than a rehash.
She had proudly presented the very same plan she’d already tried and failed to use on me as the result of her deep contemplation.
I was originally going to reject it flat out and think of another way, but… her words won me over.
As I listened to the finer details within the larger framework, it started to sound quite plausible.
As I said before, the beginning is similar to last time.
I rescue Kim Eun-bi from a crisis.
There’s no better way to make a powerful first impression, she’d said.
Though I called it a shallow trick, she was right that, when it comes to making a strong first impression, there are few better methods.
That is, assuming you don’t get caught.
This time, however, it probably won’t be easy for her to notice.
Jo Yun-kyung and I did a pretty good job setting the stage behind the scenes so that they wouldn’t suspect a thing.
After checking on my fallen opponent, I approach her as she stands frozen, still wearing a look of shock.
Then, with a tone and atmosphere that aren’t over the top, I speak.
“Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?”
I borrowed the line from the master of robotic acting who took the world by storm decades ago.
Just the line, of course.
Startled back to her senses by my question, Kim Eun-bi looks up at me with wide eyes.
“Ah, yes, yes…! I-I’m okay.”
Now, the path splits in two.
The split depends on the atmosphere she gives off.
If she senses something staged about the situation and gives me a suspicious look, it’s Plan A. If she doesn’t feel anything of the sort and things flow smoothly, it’s Plan B.
I see no seed of suspicion in her eyes as she looks up at me.
In that case… it’s B.
“It’s dangerous here, so let’s get away first.”
To create a sense of crisis that never existed in the first place, I speak with a hardened expression and a low tone. Then, I grab her hand and give it a light tug, leading her in the direction I want.
Normally, this is the kind of action that would get you slapped if you tried it on a woman with her guard up, but right now, it’s possible.
“Eh? Ahh…”
Though slightly surprised, Kim Eun-bi follows me without protest.
Then, she points to the large man lying on the ground and asks me with an innocent expression.
“A-are we just going to leave that person there…?”
“A colleague will be here soon to handle it.”
“Ah…”
I even invent a colleague who doesn’t exist.
Well, strictly speaking, I do have a colleague.
The big, scorched man lying over there is my colleague, in a sense.
After moving a short distance from the original spot, I slow my pace slightly and look back at her.
“Judging by your clothes, you seem to be out for a workout… Is your home nearby?”
“Yes… It’s just a little way in that direction.”
“That’s great.”
“Huh? What’s great… Hey!”
I lead her in the direction of Pyeongchang-dong’s lined luxury houses.
In the middle of having to pay attention to her, I get caught up in a pointless thought.
At the very edge of Pyeongchang-dong, there’s a mansion twice the size of the other houses.
That’s the house where I used to live, the one that now belongs to Fake Si-woo.
The moment I found out about Han Ju-hee’s pregnancy, I sold the apartment we were living in and bought that place.
There was no special reason.
I just wanted a large garden where our soon-to-be-born child could run around and play freely.
I also wanted to pass down everything I had achieved to my child in the training ground I’d set up out back.
A hollow laugh escapes me.
“Come to think of it, not a single one of those things came true…”
The former, because Seo-yeon was born so frail she couldn’t run and play, and the latter, because Han Ju-hee was so vehemently opposed that I couldn’t even think about teaching her.
“Huh? What came true…?”
Ah.
It seems the words I’d muttered to myself had reached her ears.
“Oh, nothing. Just that it would be nice to live in a mansion like this someday.”
“Ah…”
Kim Eun-bi seems to accept my vague excuse.
As we enter the residential area, I coolly let go of her hand.
Jo Yun-kyung had told me not to take her all the way home, but to stop somewhere appropriate.
When I asked why, she said it creates a thrilling, tantalizing distance between us.
“You can get home by yourself from here, right?”
“Huh? Ah, yes…”
“You’ve been through something unpleasant, so it would be best to rest up today and forget all about it.”
I’m about to turn and leave, but I stop and offer one last piece of advice.
“Oh, and I’d recommend not going back to that place for a few days. If you go back carelessly, it might just become a trauma.”
After finishing my words in a calm, unhurried tone, I immediately turn and start to walk away. Just then…
“W-wait a moment.”
Her voice from behind stops me in my tracks.
I turn back slightly. With a somewhat urgent look on her face, she asks a question.
“Um, your name, or a phone number, or something…”
Then she quickly waves her hands, her face turning red as she exclaims.
“Ah, no, I mean! It’s not for any other reason! I-I just want to express my gratitude!”
I’m not that kind of girl!
She looks so adorable, as if her whole body is screaming it.
At the same time, I find myself marveling at Jo Yun-kyung’s sharp foresight.
I mean, I expected it to some extent… but how could she have been so sure she would ask for my name or number like this?
A pleasant smile spreads across my face at how smoothly the whole thing is progressing as I answer her.
“Forget it.”
“Huh…?”
“It’s better for your peace of mind to forget all the bad things that happened, so just forget everything.”
This is the real final line.
The end of the one-day scenario written by Jo Yun-kyung.
I heard her voice calling after me a few more times from behind, but I ignored it all and continued walking silently.
The place I soon arrived at was the same spot where I had rescued her just a moment ago.
“You’ve returned.”
There, the large man who had been lying scorched on the ground just a while ago was standing perfectly fine, as if nothing had happened.
I walked right up to him and gave him a thumbs-up.
“Wow, your acting was amazing.”
“Haha! This is how I make a living, so of course I have to be good at it.”
He’s an actor.
A professional whom Jo Yun-kyung and I had gone to great lengths to hire.
Of course, he’s not the type to appear on TV; he’s more of a specialist for situations like this.
He’s an Awakened Being with the trait ‘Insulator.’ When electrocuted, he takes no damage, his skin just turns a little black before returning to normal—a trait a bit too ambiguous for an aspiring Hunter.
Of course, in a situation like this, it was a huge help.
I immediately take out my smartphone and pay him the remaining balance.
We had originally agreed on one million won, but I sent him a clean 1.5 million.
With this level of quality, he fully deserves it. Yep.
“Oh my! Thank you, young boss.”
“Don’t mention it. I’ll call you again if I need an actor in the future.”
“Call me anytime! I’ll repay you with the best performance.”
After sending off the man, who was thrilled by the unexpected bonus, I immediately call Jo Yun-kyung.
Her voice comes through before the phone can even ring three times.
-So, did it work?
“Yeah. Finished up with Route B, smooth as silk. I’m on my way back.”
-See? I told you it would work. You were the weird one.
“I’ve built up a tolerance for that kind of thing.”
Try living as the National Hunter for just one year.
You end up meeting every type of person imaginable.
That includes those who try to approach you with all sorts of acts.
Getting hurt by them one by one, I developed the ability to distinguish the real from the fake.
“But why did you want me to end it like that? At this point, I feel like I could have given her my name and started a connection.”
I ask her the question that’s been on my mind.
Considering the atmosphere just now, it seemed like I could have given her my number right away and used it as a pretext to build a connection. Why was she so against it?
-Nah, that’s too weak.
“…Weak?”
-What Kim Eun-bi wants is a fateful encounter, right?
“Right.”
-You know that saying, right? If you cross paths once, it’s a coincidence. Twice, it’s a connection. Three times, it’s destiny.
“So… you’re saying we should stack these coincidences until she accepts it as destiny?”
-Yep, that’s right.
Now that I hear it, that makes sense.
“So what’s next?”
-Next is… just a casual meeting? But in a slightly unexpected place.
“…An unexpected place?”
-Where else?
Her gentle voice continues.
-A club.